Power.
It was so delicious, and this particular morsel was quite tasty indeed. The trail of shimmering blue glow that slowly traveled into his waiting maw was ripe with potency. But even more delicious was the look of absolute terror and overwhelming weakness that washed over the face of the unicorn victim. The pain and fear in those eyes that just a moment ago had held some shred of defiance was the finest sight, followed shortly after by those eyes clouding over with a white haze of emptiness.
The meal finished, he let the limp, weak body of the pony drop to the ground with a dull thud. The shadows of a torchlit night were the perfect backdrop for this moment. He couldn't ask for a better ambience, looking up at the black sky, devoid of sun and moon. Of course he couldn't ask for more, he was the one that had created this perfect night of near absolute darkness.
The absorbed magic kicked in, and broad, powerful shoulders bulged by fractions of an inch. Two long horns pushed upward ever so slightly, the raw power beneath the outer flesh swelled ever so slightly. Another drop in the bucket.
Tirek surveyed his work with great satisfaction. Houses upon pleasant houses were just how they should be, smouldering with large sections of wall blown into rubble. The ponies of the town lay strewn about their homes and in the streets, all with the same hazed eyes. Their weak moans of distress were like music, and the twitching of their limbs only made it sweeter.
His yellow iris, set deep in eyes as black as jet, swept over all he had wrought. The powerful equine legs of his lower body, coated in coal gray fur, stepped over the quivering body of his latest victim. His powerful red torso swayed with each hoofstep, and a satisfied sneer of jagged teeth peeked out from behind a light gray beard. Lord Tirek was every bit the visage of a demon. He knew it, and he relished in it as he absorbed more magic and instilled more fear in this feeble little land called Equestria.
The light of a nearby torch was blotted with a fluttering of wide, leathery wings cutting through the air. Out of the corner of Tirek's eye, he spotted the familiar hunched form of his brother, carrying the flailing body of another pony in his long simian hands. His bat-like wings folded in behind his disproportionately broad, furry torso, covered in pale brown fur, a feature that didn't match his spindly arms and legs. As he stepped forward and cast the light of another torch on his face, he threw this next pony, another unicorn stallion, before Tirek. Cast in the contrast of light and shadow, the half-baboon-half-bat creature looked between Tirek and the next victim he had brought.
"Well done, Scorpan," Tirek grinned, his heavy steps carrying him up to his new prey. "How many others are there?"
Scorpan looked away as the stallion he'd brought was lifted up in Tirek's monstrous grip. The pony bucked back hard and yelled in defiance, but was soon silenced as his magic was sucked away and his cutie mark vanished with it.
"There are no others, brother," Scorpan shook his head. "It seems a small number of them were able to escape while we were culling the rest."
Indeed, from the still night air, Tirek could detect nothing but the weak cries of those he had fed off of. The town was now devoid of any more ponies that he could drain the magic from. This was the third village that this had happened in, out of seven yet that he had harvested of magic. Word of him and his brother was spreading, sending fear and terror across this feeble land as they continued their steady march from west to east.
Dropping the now useless stallion from his clutches, Tirek let out a deep, guttural laugh, "That's good. The fear in those that have escaped will have time to fester, and will spread to those that harbor them. Magic laced with fear is the best." He paused for a moment as he passed his more diminutive brother, pondering for a moment, "Why do you think we have not found a single child for the last four villages, brother?"
Scorpan was silent for a moment, his fingers tapping in succession along the bronze buckle of a studded belt about his waist. "I think that these overly-sympathetic ponies might be moving their children east as news spreads of our advance," he offered his opinion. "They may yet hold out some hope that they can defeat us before we can reach their young."
Yes, that made sense. However, it was a useless sentiment at this point.
"Those fools think they still have a chance? I suppose that will just make it all the more satisfying to crush those hopes completely," Tirek grunted. "I've already absorbed the magic from nearly half of their population. My power is unmatched now, and no number of them could ever muster the strength to defeat us now."
Scorpan nodded silently, trailing behind his brother. The two of them made their way out of the village quickly, bearing due east. They'd traveled for nearly five hours when he announced, "We have a ways to go this time. There is a huge stretch of dense wilderness between us and the next town. I hear they call it the Everfree forest. It stretches from the edges of the southern desert to the base of Mt. Canter on the north side. We definitely shouldn't go to the south, but our options are to either cut straight through, or go around north. The forest is less dense near the mountain."
A forest in the way was but a trifling matter. "We shall go through it," Tirek decided without a moment's hesitation. "There's no need to waste any time going around it. Don't tell me you're afraid of a few trees, Scorpan?" Tirek teased, turning an eye back to see the indignation on his brother's face.
"I have every right to be a little worried, Tirek," Scorpan countered. "From what I've heard during my reconnaissance, the Everfree is a strange wood with strange creatures. I know you've become extraordinarily powerful now, brother, but I'd rather not take any chances." He sighed long and hard before adding, "If you think we should continue that way, then we will. Just know that I would rather take the longer, safer route.”
Scorpan's hand lifted to shield his eyes as a sliver of sunlight on the horizon began to peek over. Tirek too lifted a hand to guard against the dawn light.
"Why did you choose to raise the sun now, brother?" Scorpan cringed as his eyes strained to adjust to the growing light. He growled as the light grew brighter still, the sun rising well above the horizon rapidly. "... Brother?"
Tirek didn't answer, his hands clenching tight. His eyes were tracking something else that now moved across the sky. The moon, pale and white, was arching through the sky, passing the sun on its opposite path. It soon dipped down below the horizon, leaving only the sun shining high overhead.
"What is this madness?!" Tirek roared, magic cracking between his tall horns in the form of a magma-hued orb. With a sweep of his arms, the earth around them began to break apart, and the grass turned to ash in an instant. "There shouldn't be any creature capable of wresting control of the sun and moon from me! What is the meaning of this?"
Scorpan flapped into the air as his brother's power devastated their immediate surroundings. So, Tirek wasn't the one that had raised the sun? That had to mean... Yes, Starswirl must have succeeded! He must have achieved the power he sought
"Tirek!" a voice boomed from above.
A shadow fell on the pair, who raised their heads to see the silhouette of a pegasus obscuring the sun, seeming to blaze with the light behind it. The pony hovered on broad wings as it boomed once more, "This is the end for you! You are going to pay for all the suffering you've inflicted on ponykind. We will reclaim the magic you have stolen!"
Wait, that voice... It wasn't Starswirl? That was the voice of a mare. A familiar voice too. Who was it that was standing up to Tirek?
Before a response could come, the sun-cloaked pegasus shot like an arrow away from the two brothers. She wheeled across the sky and over a nearby hill, disappearing from sight.
A sadistic sneer spread over Tirek's face, "So they want a fight, do they? I don't know by what fluke they've managed to move the sun and moon, but I will show them all just how weak they are before the power I have acquired."
Without hesitation, Tirek charged up the hill, reaching the crest in moments. A dark blue bolt of magic struck the ground by his hooves, bringing his attention down to the bottom of the hill. The base sloped down into a mass of dense, dark trees, and on the fringe of those trees was another silhouette. Masked by the shadows of the Everfree behind it, this other pony was only discernible as a unicorn from the azure glow around its horn.
Another mare's voice echoed from this new shadow, "You will fall today, Tirek. For our country and its citizens, you will answer to the crimes you've suffered on them!"
As soon as her voice faded, so did the unicorn melt into the shadows of Everfree. It was an obvious lure, as even Tirek could see. Still, with all of the magic he had absorbed, it didn't matter if these mares were luring him towards an army. It would just be more feed for his continuously growing power. They must have gathered quite a number of unicorns in order to move the sun and moon against his will, but there was no way they could coordinate well enough to throw any sort of combined spell at him.
"Scorpan, stay here while I take case of this rabble," Tirek sneered as his brother landed beside him. "I shall call for you when I have finished."
The looming centaur reared up on his hind legs, then let out a bellowing battle cry as he charged down the hill. He crashed through the dense trees and foliage like a cannonball, and within moments all trace of him vanished. Not a sound. Not a rustle. The enormity of the Everfree swallowed even his huge form completely.
Looking down on the forest from his hilltop perch, Scorpan wracked his brain. He'd heard both of those mare's voices before. However, he'd met quite a number of ponies on his "reconnaissance" flights, so the names stubbornly refused to spring forth.
He was jarred from his thoughts as a familiar sound greeted his keen bat-ears. A jingling of bells. Light and clear, like a needle striking crystal over and over, the gentle clinks got closer. They were soon joined by the soft crunch of dry grass being crushed underhoof. The unmistakable gentle flutter of a glossy robe completed the picture of sound, and Scorpan knew even before he turned around that his dear friend, the unicorn sorcerer Starswirl, had arrived.
The first thing anyone would see about Starswirl was his clothes. An extravagantly blue wizard's hat and cloak adorned with a great many stellar shapes such as stars and moons. The hat in particular stood out thanks to the myriad of ringing silver bells that swung just above the brim, encircling his head. The next would be the hard topaz eyes that peeked out from under the hat. Those eyes that saw everything around him in their own analytical way. By comparison, the dull, grayed-brown of his coat seemed incredibly ordinary, and his silver mane, matched with a shaggy beard, belied the actual youth of his body.
"It's good to see you again, my friend," Starswirl tipped his hat as he reached the top of the hill. "You have my most sincere thanks for your help evacuating the children up until now. Princess Platinum sends her thanks as well."
Despite the kind words, Scorpan's head hung heavy. "I just want this to be over quickly," he sighed. "Betraying my brother was not an easy choice, even though I know it is the right one."
Starswirl placed a hoof on Scorpan's shaggy shoulder. The look on Starswirl's face was a strange one. A mixture of relief and frustration that Scorpan could not understand. Tirek would be stopped soon, so what was there to be upset about?
He did, however, manage a small nod of understanding and said, "I am sorry that it took this long. I tried desperately to gain the power to stop your brother, but they found it instead."
They. The two ponies that had just lured Tirek into the Everfree. Their voices still rang with familiarity in Scorpan's mind.
"Who are they, Starswirl? I know I've heard those voices before," he asked, unable to bear the mystery any longer.
As if to answer his question, a tall, slender pillar of fire erupted from deep in the wood. It rose high until it almost seemed to touch the sun, and vanished without a single searing tongue remaining on the trees. The feeling of that magic though, Scorpan could feel the waves of mana from the spell, and they weren't those of his brother. They were enormously powerful too.
Starswirl faced Everfree, where the battle had now begun.
"Of course you know them. You saw them almost every time we met," he stated plainly. "They are my apprentices in the studies of astronomy and astrology. Much like Clover the Clever is my apprentice in the field of magic. They are a unique pair of sisters indeed."
Scorpan's eyes went wide, "Do you mean to say that Celeste and Moonlight have become alicorns?"
~*~*~*~*~*~
Weak again.
So weak and pitiful. It was infuriating.
How could he have lost again? He'd done everything perfectly this time. He had been more powerful than he had ever been, even before he had absorbed the magic of Discord and the princesses. With all the magic of Equestria at his disposal, he should have been unbeatable! Then Princess Twilight and her friends reemerged with that gaudy rainbow magic surrounding them, and ripped every scrap of magic he'd taken right back out of him.
Now here he lay, drained and weak at the top of one of Tartarus' prison spires. A once great, powerful, and muscular body was now thin and haggard from the loss of power. The long gray beard that once covered his face was now short, nothing more than overgrown stubble on his face, and his once great horns had been reduced to tiny nubs on his forehead. His hands were clad in irons, and for good measure, a prison of steel bars now contained him.
How could this have happened to him? Lord Tirek, rightful master of all magic, was right back where he had started as an eternal prisoner of the hell known as Tartarus.
He stood on wobbly hooves, lifting his thin, frail arms to pull defiantly at his bonds. They didn't budge an inch. As expected, really, but even so his frustration blazed like an inferno.
It was maddening. He'd worked so hard and it all amounted to nothing now. There was no way he'd be able to escape now. He'd gotten lucky before when Cerberus had left his post at the Gates just long enough for him to escape, but now even that wouldn't be a window to freedom to him. Would he really spend eternity here?
Rage; despair; and dare he say... fear? These things roiled in the shriveled centaur until he couldn't contain it any longer, throwing his head back and letting out a feral roar that quickly turned raspy and hollow. What little strength he had managed to gather was spent with that outburst, and he slouched to the ground with a defeated groan.
The only sound that followed was a trio of authoritative barks from his canine warden.
Silence followed. Time, immeasurable in his isolation, had passed slowly; agonizingly. A whole week could have gone by already and he wouldn't know for certain. He wasn't even sure how long his previous period of imprisonment had been, but from what he'd learned it was easily over a thousand years, maybe even nearly two thousand. Now it looked like his new prison within a prison would last him far longer still.
"Curse those insufferable ponies," the frail centaur snarled impotently. "They should have just killed me and spared me the suffering of this eternity."
A loud scraping sound off to his side caused Tirek to raise head, twitching an ear. Looking for the source of the noise, he saw a strange, colorful, seamless box sliding along the rough rocky floor of his prison. How it got through the bars, he had no idea. Not only was the strange cube far larger than the space between them, but it also had a large crank stuck into the side, the only imperfection on its otherwise smooth surface.
An unknown parcel sent into his cell... He was not alone. Someone had come to pay a visit, but he couldn’t see anyone. There was just the box and a small paper hanging from it by a string. Reaching over and lifting the card, it read:
Turn crank to activate.
Continue for three activations.
Failure to comply will result in automatic activation every thirty seconds.
He didn't like the sound of that. Not one bit. But he didn't have any choice, did he? He couldn't throw the box out of his cage, and it was going to do whatever it was made to do even if he didn't do anything.
The card and the box did scream one thing to him; Discord. Was that confounded draconequus going to torment him on top of his imprisonment?
With a defeated sigh, Tirek pulled the box in front of him and started turning the crank. As it turned, an infuriatingly merry tune started to play in time with each rotation. That alone was almost enough to make him stop right then and there, but he stomached through it until it reached the climax of the irritating jingle.
With a loud pop the box opened on invisible seams, flipping wide and causing Tirek to jerk back in surprise. From inside there shot out a felt puppet on a spring, the puppet bearing a distinct resemblance to the draconequus that had sent it. What was really worrying though, was that the little puppet was holding a very large bottle with a spray nozzle.
"Pop goes the Discord!" the strangely garbled voice of the doll sang in time with the final five notes of the tune.
With the song over, the puppet pulled a lever behind the nozzle, and a stream of fizzy water shot right into Tirek's face. He coughed and sputtered as the fluid went down his throat and up his nose, burning his nostrils. After a few seconds of the stinging spray, it started to move downward, soaking his chest. Down and down it continued to go, and it kept going even as it struck only rough stone. When the spray was on longer hitting Tirek, it suddenly intensified. It focused into a narrow stream and cut right through the chains on his shackles.
What? It had just freed his limbs? Why would Discord send him a contraption that would do something like this?
Its task done, the little puppet of Discord gave a bow and was reeled back into the box. The lid closed and the cube was once more smooth and seamless aside from its crank. It was quite the curious contraption indeed, but just what was Discord's game? What could be the purpose of all this, if there even was one?
The first time it opened it released his chains, so what would happen the next time? Curious, Tirek grasped the handle and began to turn it once more. He bore with the noxiously happy tune that played until finally the climactic note played again.
The box popped open, Puppet Discord sprang out once more, this time wielding a menacing looking crowbar.
"Pop goes the Discord!" it sang, shooting up on its spring and over towards the bars of the cage. The crowbar was jammed into the space where it met the top, and the puppet yanked it down, popping the side free with a loud clang. The iron bars hit the ground with a ringing boom that echoed across Tartarus.
Oh crud, did Cerberus hear that? There was no telling what the warden of this prison would do to Tirek if he was found unchained and a side of his cage down. He cringed involuntarily at the noise, expecting the three-headed canine to be upon his prison in an instant.
He never came. Curious. Not even so much as a bark.
With yet another bow, the puppet started to get sucked back into the box. This time, however, on the return path it swung out to Tirek and struck him upside his head with the crowbar. Stars swam before his eyes. His already frail body went completely limp as he slumped over to the side, now sporting a sizable lump on his head. He was out in an instant.
Silence. The spans of Tartarus were deathly silent as Tirek lay unconscious on the floor. Thirty seconds passed, and the crank on the box began to turn on its own. The musical tune echoed all around, and when it finished once more, the last jubilant call of the puppet came.
"Pop goes the Discord!"
It sprung free and latched its arms around Tirek's face. With a final manic cackle, the puppet pulled the captured centaur along with it into the box. Its purpose fulfilled, the box promptly vanished in a blink of light, leaving no trace behind but an open cage and a puddle of seltzer water on the floor.
Far below, at the base of the prison spire that Tirek had been jailed upon, Discord broke out into laughter next to the three smirking mugs of Cerberus.
"Looks like he took the bait. I hope he has a nice big headache when he wakes up," Discord chortled, petting one of Cerberus' snouts. "And thank you very much for allowing me to take him."
His talon hand drifted down to scratch just under the jowls of the giant canine's center head, its tongue rolled out in a blissful, dopey expression. The other two heads grinned and nodded, showing their approval in the deal that had been struck. I brotherly bump of their huge paw with Discord's lion limb sealed their deal.
Most wouldn't think it, but Cerberus was actually quite an intelligent creature, for one without any language skills. Though he could not speak, it understood quite well. On top of that, it was one of the best judges of a creature's character, able to see an evil or just plain devious heart from a pure one with ease. He certainly wasn't the guardian of Tartarus without reason, but he wasn't quite immune to his baser canine instincts either, as his stint in Ponyville had proven.
The mere fact that Cerberus hadn't attempted the gnash Discord into kibble on sight was quite something. It was all the more proof to the draconequus of how completely he'd changed over the past week. Cerberus could see the change and the honesty of his intentions, and it made him... happy. It was really strange to feel so simply happy after a couple millennia of madness and solitude, but he was glad to be able to feel this way again. It was nice, and made him a touch nostalgic for the days where he'd instruct Clover on principles of magic, then turn right around and help Celeste and Moonlight map out a new star on their personal charts. To think he used to look back on those days with apathy since his fall into Chaos.
"Alright, it's time for me to go," Discord grinned devilishly. With a snap of his talons, three giant present boxes appeared in front of Cerberus, which got its tail wagging in excitement. "Enjoy my little thank you gift. I promise that if I fail with Tirek, I will return him. I hope for Equestria's sake that it doesn't come to that though."
Another snap, and Discord vanished, leaving Cerberus to his gifts. The center head was the first to sink its fangs into the neatly wrapped box. Paper, cardboard, and a pretty yellow bow were ripped to shreds until he lifted his head, proudly slobbering all over a huge white bone... A bone with a lit fuse.
With a boom, the center head was singed and covered in a layer of soot, still clamped down on the splintered fragments of the bone bomb. The two outer heads broke into a fit of laughter before tearing into their own boxes. The left head produced a very real bone for the grumpy center head to take. Once all three heads had their own oversized bone to gnaw on, Cerberus laid himself down to snack contentedly.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Tirek woke to blinding pain. The throbbing in his head seemed to pound outward and batter his own eardrums with each beat of his heart. He tried to open his eyes, but they refused to focus and only revealed a mottled blur.
"Curse you, Discord," he seethed with rage as he recalled the box and the puppet. "I should have incinerated you when I had the chance." As he threw all manner of insults and threats into the air, he blinked furiously, attempting to clear his vision.
"Oh dear, that's no way to speak about a friend, now is it?" Discord's voice sounded from behind him. "Oh wait, that's right, all of that was nothing but a bunch of poppycock wasn't it?"
There was a surprisingly malicious edge to his voice that Tirek noted, and though he didn't like admitting it to himself, it had him worried. In his frail state, he wouldn't be able to do anything at all to protect himself. "What is this about, Discord? Did you want to taunt me with freedom just before you take your revenge on me?" he growled at the murky, twisting blur that was Discord.
Little by little, his vision was clearing, and his bearings were coming into focus. Not that what he saw made any sense to him. Unnatural and luminous hues of green and black seemed to swirl and move around behind Discord. Just where were they exactly?
"Well, yes and no," was the cryptic answer. "Yes, I was taunting you with false freedom; however, I really am freeing you from Tartarus. Also, I am going to get my revenge on you for everything you've done to me and my friends, but at the same time I'm not going to harm you."
What? Could he be any more confusing? False freedom, yet freeing him from Tartarus? Getting revenge, yet not harming him?
"Spare me your moronic paradoxes," Tirek huffed. His vision finally started to clear, and Discord started to come into focus. Except... it wasn't Discord he was looking at. Instead of the twisting, serpentine, and mismatched draconequus he knew, Tirek saw a different familiar face. That of a pony he had only seen once, but would never forget. "You test my patience, Discord. Why do taunt me with the face of Starswirl, the one that made my brother betray me?"
A playful smirk spread across Starswirl's face and he adjusted his large blue hat. The motion was devoid of a single jingle, as his hat was barren of any of the bells that had once adorned it. "What are you talking about, Tirek? I am Starswirl. I am also Discord. I am Starswirl the Discordant."
The words struck Tirek in the gut. This had to be some kind of sick joke. The pony he hated most had been under his nose all along, and not dead for millennia? He could very well have had the vengeance on Starswirl that he had yearned for, but that chance had gone now.
"Damn you," he struggled to his hooves, his shaky limbs barely able to support him. "You are the reason for all of my suffering! You turned my brother against me two thousand years ago. I don't doubt that you're why I've lost everything all over again!"
Starswirl shook his head, "Poor Tirek. You’re so misguided." His hard topaz eyes sparked with eclectic energy as he smiled, "You really shouldn't blame me for everything. It's your own fault that you're standing here right now. You're the one that was overconfident and let Twilight go, allowing her to attain the power to defeat you. Those two millennia ago it was the same, the darkness in your heart and your obsession with power pushed Scorpan away from you, and he had no other choice but to betray you. All of your failures are your own doing."
Absolute nonsense. Scorpan had been a loyal and steadfast brother, but it was Starswirl and his kind that had turned his brother into a weakminded and spineless fool.
"But of course, simple words won't persuade someone like you, " Starswirl spoke knowingly. "Instead, you should be more concerned with where we are."
With his vision clear, Tirek was able to fully take in his surroundings now. He and Starswirl stood in an endless expanse of black filled with innumerable stars and colored with huge stretches of bright green nebulae. Lastly, he spotted several glowing white rectangles floating around the two of them. They just hovered there, blank and white. Though the had no signs of life or any eyes, Tirek couldn't help but feel as though they were looking straight through him.
"What is this place?" he demanded to know.
"Why, this is the Realm of Ascension, of course!" Starswirl swept a hoof around in a grand gesture. "This magnificent plane is a focal point of all of our reality's threads. You could call it the center stitch that holds the fabric of our world together.”
"That's all very interesting, but why are we here?" Tirek waved his explanation away. He was losing his patience with the pony, though he was infuriatingly powerless to do anything about it.
"We are here because this is the place where every alicorn is created. It is where Celestia, Luna, Cadance, and Twilight ascended to the pinnacle of pony power," Starswirl explained with great enthusiasm, pacing around Tirek. A bright white glow from his horn quickly condensed behind him into an projection of Discord, a second identical voice echoing from the image as they said, "And it is where I became Discord."
This place had such power? That still didn't answer his question though. It just raised more.
Thankfully, it seemed Starcord or whatever he wanted to call himself wasn't finished yet, as he and his illusory double kept explaining, "You see, in this realm, reality altering magic is at its most potent. It's that very magic that shapes those that earn passage here into a new form befitting their deeds. A pony that embodies harmony, love, and friendship, becomes an alicorn. I strayed from the balance and was rewarded with the power of Chaos. We, however, are here for another reason today."
Starswirl took a step towards Tirek, his hoof sending a ripple across the void and causing the illusion of Discord behind him to fade. With the next step, a light shot out from Starswirl's horn and struck Tirek full in the chest. He expected pain to follow, but instead the white glow festered its way into his flesh and faded beneath his dark fur.
"You know, I really must thank you, Tirek," Starswirl chuckled, his eyes gleaming with excitement. "If it wasn't for you, I might never have returned to my old self. I would have been nothing but Discord, isolated and alone, for the rest of eternity. Nearly losing everything all over again brought me back from those dark depths. I’d say my heart grew three sizes that day." He pulled an x-ray over his own chest, showing a tiny heart swelling larger and larger until the edges of the screen broke from heart pushing out from within.
It was then that the pain hit. Raw and agonizing, it felt like claws were ripping at his chest from the inside. The white glow burst from his chest, accompanied by black tendrils that twisted and entwined with the light. His heart felt like it was going to explode. His lungs heaved. His every muscle started to ache. Every fiber of his being seemed to burn as the light and dark pouring from his chest split outward and pierced into his hands and hooves, causing all of the pain to spike to greater heights.
As he collapsed to the invisible surface they stood on, Tirek let out deep gasps and shouts of pain. Despite that, he managed to choke out a few indignant words, "What kind of -nngh!- thanks is an agonizing death?!"
Starswirl's expression was mystified. "Death?" he asked innocently. "Don't be silly, I'm not killing you, I'm just ripping the fabric of your being to pieces so that I can stitch it back together!"
"What?!" Tirek's hand flew to his chest involuntarily, futilely clutching at the light that spilled from his chest in an attempt to resist.
"Oh, I know, this hurts like nothing you've ever experienced before," Starswirl smiled despite the edge in his voice. "It was the same for me. After all, a pony ascending to alicorn status is one thing, but one creature being transformed into something completely different is far from an easy process. Your body and soul are rejecting it with everything they have, but the change can't be stopped now."
Starswirl watched on in earnest as the light and darkness eclipsed Tirek's writhing form, his grunts and howls going mute. The magic at work here was far different than any simple shape-shifting of transformation spell. This was changing every last piece of his existence into a new shape. Of course, some things could never be changed no matter how the target was stitched back together.
With another bright strobe from its pulsing depths, the light faded, leaving Tirek panting and gasping for breath. "What did you do to me? My body feels weird," he shouted at Starswirl. His eyes went wide and he raised a hoof to his throat, "What's wrong with my voice?" It wasn't as raspy and weak as it had been a moment ago, and it wasn't his normal deep and booming voice. It sounded way too... ordinary.
"Take a look for yourself," the Starswirl grinned cheekily, clapping his hooves once and producing a small hoofmirror between them. He held it up to give Tirek a good look at himself.
What he saw was like a nightmare made real. A pair of bright orange eyes peered back at him down a long snout, framed by a long, silver mane. No longer did he have a torso and arms above his hooves. Instead, his forehooves were his arms now. His whole equine body was covered in dark fur of a faded maroon color. To top it all off, a single horn spiralled up from the top of his forehead.
His body was that of a unicorn stallion now.
Hatred and anger exploded in Tirek. He smacked the mirror down and turned his horn on Starswirl, the length shining with a molten orange glow.
Unconcerned, Starswirl only seemed to just remember something. "Ah, that's right," he produced a small black ring in his hoof, then effortlessly threw it onto Tirek's horn. "Just one last thing to make it complete."
The ring spun on the tip of Tirek's horn before sliding down to the base. The moment it latched down at the base, the magic around Tirek's horn sparked and fizzled, then with a sharp crack, his body was assaulted with a current of electric force that knocked him back on his haunches, horn smoking.
"I hate you... so much."
